Ship of Secrets (2 page)

“The Great Wall of China!” Joe yelled, racing to a giant pool in front of them. There were slides
that looked like an old wall that went down into the water. There were already twenty or so people in the pool, splashing about.

“Look! There’s the pyramid!” Frank cried out. There was a twenty-foot-high pyramid with a lazy river underneath it. A few boys went through a tunnel in bright blue inner tubes.

Joe ran around the deck, past some of the other pools they’d seen in the brochure. Real-life gladiators walked around the ship’s deck, taking pictures with people. Frank drew his invisible sword again, but this time he pointed it at one of the men in costume. “This is going to be the best vacation ever!” he cried.

Joe followed his brother’s lead, pretending to pull out his sword again. He couldn’t stop laughing as they charged forward, toward the pool.

T
he
Tyrannosaurus rex
opened its mouth and roared. Frank and Joe pulled more basketballs from the gutter and threw them into the hoop beside the dinosaur’s head. “We are halfway there!” Frank yelled. “Keep going.”

They grabbed another ball, then another, and tossed them into the hoop. Each one was painted white and purple, which was supposed to make them look like dinosaur eggs. The basketball hoop was shaped like a nest. The boys had discovered
the game this afternoon, and they’d spent the last few hours inside the arcade, shooting hoop after hoop. Dino Ball (which is what it was called) had earned them more than fifty tickets. If they won fifty more, they could have their choice of prizes from the arcade.

“There you are!” Mrs. Hardy yelled across the crowded arcade. “We’ve been looking all over for you. This place is packed.”

“Just . . . one . . . more!” Joe said. The timer ticked down. He tossed the last egg into the nest.
It went through, and the machine spit out ten more tickets.

“We’re only forty tickets away from the grand prize, Mom,” Frank said. He pointed to the wall across the arcade. There were stuffed toys of all shapes and sizes—bears, parrots, and even a giant banana. But Frank and Joe had their eye on the prizes on the very top shelf. There, above everything else, was a Soaker Shooter. It was one of the biggest water guns they’d ever seen.

“Seems like a scary game!” Mr. Hardy patted the giant dinosaur on the head. The
T. rex
was nearly as tall as he was, with scaly skin that looked real. The dinosaur showed them his shiny, plastic teeth.

“It’s time for dinner, boys,” Mrs. Hardy said. “You can win the rest of your tickets later. Promise.” She waved them past a row of pinball machines, a photo booth, and a game where you hit gophers on the head with a hammer.

“Look what else we got.” Joe held up a drawing of him and Frank together. It was drawn with thick black marker. They had huge heads and tiny bodies. They were each holding a magnifying glass, just like Sherlock Holmes would.

“Well, look at that!” Mr. Hardy laughed. “That’s a nice picture of you two.”

“He even drew a case file for us,” Frank added, pointing to a folder he was holding in the picture. “Just like the kind you carry.” They’d found the man on the main deck that day drawing pictures for anyone who wanted one. People would sit in a chair for a few minutes, and he’d look at them, then ask what they liked to do for fun. Sometimes he drew kids riding bicycles or playing soccer. Frank and Joe had told him how much they liked solving mysteries, so he’d drawn them like Sherlock Holmes. He called the pictures caricatures.

As they walked toward the main ballroom, they could hear the music starting. Inside there were hundreds of tables, all in front of a big stage. Most people were wearing nice dresses or button-down shirts. Some stood in line for food, while others ate dinner as they watched the show. Onstage a few dancers in red sequined gowns spun around in circles. A band played a loud song. The trumpets blasted out a few notes.

“What was your favorite part of today?” Mrs. Hardy asked as they sat down at their table. The plates were heaped with salad and breadsticks. Across from them was another family, with red-haired triplets who were about five. One of the girls was throwing crackers at her sister.

“The pyramid pool,” Frank said. “No, no—I liked the game room the best. That dinosaur game is my favorite.”

“What about the magic show? I loved how
the magician made all those cards disappear. I still don’t know where they went!” Joe couldn’t stop thinking about it. One minute there was a whole deck of cards, and the next minute they were gone.

Frank was going to mention the flamingo park on the top deck, or the clown who walked around the restaurant on stilts, but then the lights in the ballroom went down. A man in a tuxedo walked onto the stage just as the band finished their song. He had thick black hair and a mustache that curled up at the ends. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the
Ship of Wonders
!” He waited until the crowd stopped clapping. “I’m Ricardo Ramboni, and I’ll be your host for the next week, introducing some of the best musical acts you’ve ever seen. Tonight our first performers will be—”

There was a shriek somewhere in the crowd. Ricardo stopped talking. Every head in the room
turned toward one of the front tables. “I don’t believe this! No!” the woman cried. She pushed her chair back and lifted up the tablecloth.

“What’s going on?” Frank whispered. “Who is that?”

Ricardo was still standing on the stage, frozen. He waved his hands, and someone turned on the ballroom lights. “Isn’t that the woman from this morning?” Joe asked. “Sir Reginald’s wife?”

The Hardy family watched as Sir Reginald Heartpence climbed out from under the table. His white hair stuck up in every direction. His cheeks were bright red, and his suit jacket was messed up. He held a small leather briefcase in his hand. “It’s not here! It’s not anywhere!” he yelled.

Ricardo stepped down from the stage, and a few waiters rushed in, trying to help the couple. Their teenage kids stood up, looking a little embarrassed. Every person in the ballroom was staring at them.

Before Mr. or Mrs. Hardy could tell them not to, Frank and Joe sprung from their seats, trying to get a closer look. They pushed through some of the crowd until they were only ten feet away from Sir Reginald and his wife. Sir Reginald set the briefcase down on the table, pointing inside
to the spot where the pocket watch used to be. “It was here just four hours ago. And now it’s gone!”

His wife put her head in her hands. Her eyes were so red, it looked like she was going to cry. “I don’t know what happened,” she said quietly.

A few waiters tried to calm Sir Reginald, but he shook them off, instead looking at the crowd that had formed around him. He stared at each person, his brows furrowed together, as if everyone were a suspect. “I know exactly what happened,” he said. “Someone stole it!”

N
ow, let’s not jump to conclusions,” Ricardo said, looking around. “Did you misplace it? Could it still be in your cabin?”

“Nonsense!” Sir Reginald yelled. “It was right here. Which one of you stole it? There’s a thief among us!” He eyed the tables next to him. There were two four-year-olds coloring on the floor beside them. Sir Reginald glared at them, as if they might’ve crawled under the table and taken the pocket watch themselves.

“Something tells me they’re not suspects,” Frank said, and laughed. The two kids could barely color in the lines. Opening a leather briefcase and stealing a watch would’ve been a pretty big challenge.

“You have to lock the doors,” Mrs. Heartpence said, pointing at the ballroom doors on the other side of the room. Some of the crowd had finished their dinner and were now walking out, annoyed by the commotion. “The thief might be getting away!”

Mr. Hardy and Mrs. Hardy joined the small crowd. Mr. Hardy and the boys were already studying the scene like any good detectives would. They looked at the table and the tables around it, then kept an eye out for any suspicious people who seemed out of place. There were no signs that anything was off. Onstage the band started a new song, trying to entertain the guests who were still eating.

A man in a black suit came over with two security guards from the ship. “Sir, I am so sorry to hear about what happened, but let’s discuss this somewhere else,” the man said. Frank recognized him from earlier in the day. He was one of the cruise directors. He wandered around the ship, making sure everyone was having a good time. “We wouldn’t want to spoil anyone’s dinner, would we?”

“You cannot dock in Miami on Monday,” Mrs. Heartpence said, ignoring him. “We can’t. As soon as this ship is in the harbor, the thieves will smuggle the pocket watch off. They’ll sell it as soon as they can. Then it will really be gone forever.”

“I’m afraid we can’t stop the ship’s course,” the director said. “Even for a valuable antique. Our security officers here will be on the case. Why don’t you come to the employee’s main office tomorrow morning and we will try to sort this out?”

“Tomorrow?” Sir Reginald huffed. “You cannot be serious. Every minute counts. Why can’t you see that?” His wife was practically in tears.

Frank and Joe looked at their dad. Mr. Hardy already had his notebook out and was scribbling notes. “Look, Dad,” Joe said, pointing to the briefcase. “There’s no lock on it. Did you write that down?”